head to head · open source
nginx vs OpenSurge-for-Mac
nginx has 31,681 GitHub stars, 8,302 forks, 468 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. OpenSurge-for-Mac has 2,367 stars, 166 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. nginx leads on adoption by 1,238% (31,681 vs 2,367 stars). nginx is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; OpenSurge-for-Mac is written in Go under GPL-3.0. nginx has attracted 26% as many forks as stars, OpenSurge-for-Mac 7%. OpenSurge-for-Mac was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| nginx | OpenSurge-for-Mac | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.3K | ⑂ 166 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nginx if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick OpenSurge-for-Mac if
- You want the OpenSurge-for-Mac feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and OpenSurge-for-Mac fits your workflow better
About nginx
NGINX is the official open source repository for the NGINX web server and its load balancer, reverse proxy, API gateway and content cache roles, written in C under the BSD 2 Clause licence and aimed at system administrators, DevOps engineers and platform teams who need to serve, balance and protect their own HTTP traffic.
read the full nginx overview →
About OpenSurge-for-Mac
OpenSurge for Mac is an open source, GPL 3.0 macOS gateway and control plane that turns a Mac into a Surge style whole home transparent proxy gateway with IPv4 and IPv6 support, built for home network operators and small labs that want per device routing without swapping out their main router.
read the full OpenSurge-for-Mac overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nginx or OpenSurge-for-Mac more popular?
nginx has 31,681 GitHub stars and OpenSurge-for-Mac has 2,367. nginx has the larger community by that measure.
Are nginx and OpenSurge-for-Mac free?
Both are open source. nginx is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and OpenSurge-for-Mac under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nginx and OpenSurge-for-Mac?
nginx is written in C and OpenSurge-for-Mac in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, nginx or OpenSurge-for-Mac?
Choose nginx if you want the larger community (31,681 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose OpenSurge-for-Mac if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.